The passage of anti-money laundering legislation through Parliament on Thursday will facilitate further growth in Australia’s local blockchain and digital currency industry, according to local fintech leaders. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2017 will extend anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulation to digital currency exchanges. The legislation requires these exchanges to monitor … Read more

Online cash flow lender Waddle has secured a $50 million debt funding facility, as it revealed it almost doubled its lending volume in the last financial year. The software is integrated into popular small business accounting packages like Xero, Intuit and MYOB to be able to look at which invoices are overdue for its customer. … Read more

With startupland currently inundated with hype around initial coin offerings, Bitcoin forks, and disruptive new blockchain companies, one startup veteran says the Swiss town of Zug — recently coined as ‘crypto valley’ — might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Zug is the home of the foundation behind second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum, which can be thanked … Read more

The number of Australian businesses that have become ‘disruptors’ has more than doubled in the past 12 months, as part of a spike in the level of innovation across the nation, according to early results from the latest Commonwealth Bank Business Insights Report. Adam Bennett, Group Executive Business and Private Banking, Commonwealth Bank, said, “The … Read more

Cloud accounting provider Reckon is selling a 120-person division to rival MYOB for $180 million as it looks to – in the words of Group CEO Clive Rabie – “narrow [its] focus on the small business accounting software market”. Subject to regulatory approval by the ACCC and the NZCC, MYOB will acquire the assets of … Read more

Startup bank Monzo raised £71 million ($US93 million) in a new financing round, doubling its valuation since its last fundraising round in February. The British company is now valued at £280 million ($US336 million) and said it and now has more than 20,000 current account holders. Total users have increase by nearly 300% since February’s … Read more

Trade Ledger, a tech startup which rethinks the way lenders assess cash flow solutions for high-growth companies that struggle to find credit, is set help banks fight off internet giants such as eBay and PayPal. The fintech, based in Sydney’s Stone & Chalk, is out to challenge a financial model that has been around for … Read more

The Reserve Bank of Australia could join the likes of Estonia and Lebanon in creating a cryptocurrency based on the Australian dollar, to reap the benefits of technology like the blockchain but with more stability than other well known currencies like Bitcoin. The RBA has already been approached by interested startups to create this new digital currency, known as … Read more

The second ever census of Australian fintech startups has shone a spotlight on the industry’s rapid growth and significant investment but the report reveals gender equality in the sector is still a ways off. FinTech Australia released the findings of its annual census at the Intersekt Collab/Collide summit in Melbourne this morning. The report, which was … Read more

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are polarising the business world at the moment, but one Australian company has made hay while the sun shines, raising 21,000 Bitcoins worth of capital. Blockchain security startup HCash, which is developing its technology in conjunction with Melbourne’s Monash University, has revealed to Business Insider that the round closed on July … Read more